With the development of computer technology, electronic components such as central processing units (CPUs) have become progressively smaller, while at the same time their heat dissipation requirements have increased. Generally, heat dissipation devices are applied to the electronic components in order to facilitate dissipation of heat from the electronic components.
Nowadays, numerous kinds of heat dissipation devices have been developed for cooling the electronic components, for example, heat sinks or fans. Typically, a heat sink includes a base and a number of fins extending from a surface of the base, generally engaged with a fan adjacent to the fins. This kind of heat sink has a large volume and is popularly applied in a desktop computer because a typical enclosure of the desktop computer can provide enough space to accommodate the heat sink.
However, this heat sink is substantially unsuitable to be applied in a notebook computer due to a decreasingly limited space thereof. Specifically, due to marketing efforts and consumer preferences, designs for notebook computers tend to be increasingly thin and lightweight. For this heat sink to be accommodated into a notebook computer, there would have to be an undesirable increase in both the thickness and weight of the notebook computer.
Another significant marketing factor for the notebook computers is the length of time that a battery can power a notebook computer before the becoming discharged. The powerful fans used in many heat sinks tend to consume a significant amount of battery power, and would thus undesirably shorten the effective battery life if used. Although a larger battery could be used, this would result in an increase in the size and/or weight of the notebook computer, which as discussed above is undesirable.
What is needed, therefore, is a heat dissipation module that does not require special power equipment.